Originally Posted by boog123 (Post 1075799)

Who wrote this again? Oct 2:

"If you haven't set up a brokeragelink do it first thing monday morning. Put all available investable assets there (sitting in a tax exempt moneymarket trust). The market is going to fall off a cliff within the next 2 weeks... sooner rather than later.

Wait for the market to hit bottom...by 3rd week in Oct. Buy a good 3X etf like tna or erx. Plan to sell in april sometime and shift your holdings to a 3X inverse etf like FAZ. Rinse repeat. Not much babysitting required.

FWIW, from the guy who bought erx monday (not friday) at 30.80 and sold tues for 38, a 25% gain in two days in full view of you folks.

Again, not investment advice, do your own due diligence, your mileage may vary, you are responsible for your own actions, etc."

Originally Posted by gloopy (Post 1075731)

How can they ever do that? The entire reason there is a DCI in the first place is to whipsaw DCI carriers against DCI carriers. There really isn't even any DCI versus Mainline whipsaw anyway, as DCI automatically underbids and gets the work so it comes down to DCI vs DCI.

This has been tried before and never got off the ground. In fact the race to the bottom only accelerated as ACMI providers shoved each other aside to win the next RFP. Pay for training has been replaced with pay for flight time and pay for upgrade. Any DCI carrier that tries to raise the bar in any significant way for any length of time is punished severely. Some contractual gains are seen from time to time, but they are modest and quite often given back before the ammendable date anyway.

RFP's aren't just for growth flying anymore. They are for current flying and the cheapest wins. That DCI carrier at the alliance meeting sitting right next to your guy will underbid your group in a second when the time comes and if he doesn't, you will uderbid him and he knows it.

There is nothing any alliance can do to change the fact that DCI flying is a zero sum game and every plane one carrier gets another carrier doesn't get. There will always be a pilot group willing to "deal management an ace" to get the work. Always. Also from time to time, new DCI carriers will be signed on as well as created from thin air if necessary, where everything is cheaper and everyone is on first year pay.

How will an alliance convince one DCI carrier to overbid another knowing the one that underbid them got the work? How will a DCI alliance stop non DCI airlines from putting in a lower bid? How will it stop new DCI's from being created?

This is a mainline problem and the solution has to be a mainline solution. Mainline and DCI can collaborate to a point, but anything greater than a staple with some reasonable DCI protections is a non starter. Yet even that requires 100% mainline bargaining to secure for it to have any real meaning (scope recapture). Only mainline pilot groups can fix this by reclaiming scope. There is no other way.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar (Post 1075796)

Thanks Carl, but it was a little too personal and it still really upsets me.

One funny aspect of it was that TWO MONTHS later, while non reving back from a hike in Banff the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detected "bomb making materials" on our infant and considered taking her into custody until we explained the whole story. Those sniffers at the airport work amazingly well.

Originally Posted by boog123 (Post 1075799)

Who wrote this again? Oct 2:

Originally Posted by boog123 (Post 1075799)

Who wrote this again? Oct 2:

"If you haven't set up a brokeragelink do it first thing monday morning. Put all available investable assets there (sitting in a tax exempt moneymarket trust). The market is going to fall off a cliff within the next 2 weeks... sooner rather than later."

Originally Posted by boog123 (Post 1075799)

Who wrote this again? Oct 2:

"If you haven't set up a brokeragelink do it first thing monday morning. Put all available investable assets there (sitting in a tax exempt moneymarket trust). The market is going to fall off a cliff within the next 2 weeks... sooner rather than later.

Wait for the market to hit bottom...by 3rd week in Oct. Buy a good 3X etf like tna or erx. Plan to sell in april sometime and shift your holdings to a 3X inverse etf like FAZ. Rinse repeat. Not much babysitting required.

FWIW, from the guy who bought erx monday (not friday) at 30.80 and sold tues for 38, a 25% gain in two days in full view of you folks.

Again, not investment advice, do your own due diligence, your mileage may vary, you are responsible for your own actions, etc."

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar (Post 1075787)

PM sent.

There are some real problems with UHC that threaten the financial security of our pilots. Since we co-insure ourselves you are exposed to WHATEVER rates UHC negotiates with providers. In most cases those rates are lower than standard self pay rates and closer to Medicaid reimbursement (WellStar for instance is allegedly a "non profit" provider). Most of the time we happily see a 70% discount and go about our ways.

But what if UHC decides to enter into a contract which pays much MORE than you would owe otherwise? You will find that under law you owe it. In our case the procedure was billed at just under six times the Medicare rate, which was more than four times UHC's own "usual and customary" rate for non network providers.

UHC is exempt from the laws which regulate insurers, as well as anti trust and consumer protection regulations. A fight with these guys could easily leave a Delta employee bankrupt and given the depth of their abuses there probably are some examples out there to be found.

Originally Posted by boog123 (Post 1075799)

Who wrote this again? Oct 2:

"If you haven't set up a brokeragelink do it first thing monday morning. Put all available investable assets there (sitting in a tax exempt moneymarket trust). The market is going to fall off a cliff within the next 2 weeks... sooner rather than later.

Wait for the market to hit bottom...by 3rd week in Oct. Buy a good 3X etf like tna or erx. Plan to sell in april sometime and shift your holdings to a 3X inverse etf like FAZ. Rinse repeat. Not much babysitting required.

FWIW, from the guy who bought erx monday (not friday) at 30.80 and sold tues for 38, a 25% gain in two days in full view of you folks.

Again, not investment advice, do your own due diligence, your mileage may vary, you are responsible for your own actions, etc."

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar (Post 1075796)

Thanks Carl, but it was a little too personal and it still really upsets me.

One funny aspect of it was that TWO MONTHS later, while non reving back from a hike in Banff the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detected "bomb making materials" on our infant and considered taking her into custody until we explained the whole story. Those sniffers at the airport work amazingly well.

Originally Posted by iceman49 (Post 1075840)

UHC does not fare well.